Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth Papers (Ms.Ellsworth)

The Ellsworth Papers consist of approximately 225 items covering the period 1854-1861. The collection consists primarily of correspondence, but includes some official state documents from Illinois and Wisconsin, a fragment of Ellsworth's journal from 1855, and drafts of various other writings, along with a small selection of memorial objects.

The papers came to Brown from the family of John Hay, and form part of the John Hay Collection. After Ellsworth was killed in May 1861, his grieving parents received many offers to write his biography. However, it was only John Hay's letter that moved Ellsworth's parents to pursue the project. Hay, working with a committee of Ellsworth's friends, collected materials to be used in the biography, which he published in the Atlantic Magazine later that same year. (See John Hay, Ellsworth, Atlantic Monthly VIII (1861), pp. 119- 25).

Hay met Ellsworth when both men were in Washington as part of Lincoln's staff. Hay's memorial to Ellsworth thus reflects the personal knowledge of a friend and compatriot. Ellsworth, like Hay himself, was a close associate of Lincoln, and in that regard the collection is also substantially related to the McLellan Lincoln Collection at the Brown University Library.